Winter kul arrives but high fruit prices leave Dhaka buyers uneasy

On Friday, 26 December 2025, the Bangladeshi news site Jagonews24 reported that fruit buyers in Dhaka were uneasy at the prices they found, even though the winter season had brought kul, boroi and other local fruits to the stalls. Its reporter visited markets in Mirpur, Tolarbag, Pallabi, Kalshi and Rupnagar and found plenty of local fruit on sale alongside most of the imported kinds, including apples, grapes, oranges and pomegranates. Supply was not the problem, the report said; price was. Shoppers were buying in small amounts, and buyers said most fruits could no longer be had for less than Tk 300-350 a kilogram, although the holy month of Ramadan was still about two months away.

Medium-sized boroi (jujube) was selling for Tk 150-200 a kg and kul for Tk 250-300, the report said, while small boroi could be bought for Tk 100-130. Thai guava sold for Tk 100-120 a kg, and chalta (elephant apple) and kodbel (wood apple) for Tk 40-60. Beyond these four winter fruits, it said, the rest of the fruit on sale was also out of many buyers' reach, and faces at the stalls were glum.

Among the other fruits grown in Bangladesh, dragon fruit cost Tk 200-250 a kg, sapodilla Tk 150, amra (hog plum) Tk 120-150 and jalpai (Indian olive) Tk 80-100.

Banglapedia, the national encyclopaedia of Bangladesh, gives boroi and kul as two Bengali names for the same fruit, the Indian jujube. The market report listed boroi and kul separately, with the larger kul the dearer of the two.

Among imported fruit, malta was selling for Tk 250-300 a kg. Oranges cost Tk 350-380, small oranges Tk 300-320 and China oranges Tk 300-320. Pears sold for Tk 300-350 a kg. Pomegranates cost Tk 600-650, grapes Tk 500-600 and persimmons Tk 1,200 a kg. Fuji apples sold for Tk 300-350 and green apples for Tk 400-450.

Buyers in these markets told the reporter that the prices of imported fruit in the capital had already gone up, even though Ramadan, when demand for fruit rises, was still about two months off.

Sellers gave their own explanation. Retail prices were high, they said, because wholesale prices were high, and imported fruit had become dearer because imports were lower and duties high. Against this background, the report said, there were fears that fruit prices could rise once more before Ramadan.

Raihan Mahmud, a fruit seller in Pallabi, said the prices of all kinds of imported fruit had risen in the wholesale market. Malta was somewhat cheaper, he said, but fruit prices were rising every week, and they could rise further before Ramadan, because demand would grow then while supply would be short.

Shamsuddoha, a fruit seller at Rupnagar market, said fruit sales had fallen sharply. At present, he said, it was mainly people who were ill who bought fruit; ordinary customers bought very little for themselves, half a kilo, or one or two oranges or apples, and that was how trade was going.

Buyers alleged that, for lack of market monitoring, sellers were setting fruit prices as they pleased. The report did not carry a response from traders or from any market authority to that complaint.

Nahid Islam, a salaried worker who was going from one fruit stall to another on the pavement in central Pallabi, said that not long before, malta and oranges had cost Tk 200-250 a kg, but now they were above Tk 300. In his view there was no shortage of fruit in the market and imports were adequate, so there was no reasonable cause for prices to rise; if they kept climbing, he said, fruit would move beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Sabiha Mahmud, a homemaker, said Ramadan was still some way off and yet fruit prices had already risen. She called for strong steps by the government to bring the fruit market under control.

The cheapest fruits in the report were the winter ones. Banglapedia describes the jujube as one of the most popular fruits in Bangladesh. The fruits belong to the genus Ziziphus, which has about 40 species; two are cultivated, Ziziphus mauritiana, the Indian jujube, and Ziziphus jujuba, the Chinese jujube. According to the encyclopaedia, the fruit originated in northern India, south-west China and central Malaysia, and is also grown in the dry regions of Africa and America.

Banglapedia gives the fruit's composition as 85.9 per cent water, 0.8 per cent protein, 0.1 per cent fat and 12.8 per cent carbohydrate, with 55 kilocalories, 70 international units of carotene and 50-150 milligrams of vitamin C in each 100 grams of the edible part. It is eaten fresh and is also made into jam, jelly, chutney, pickles and juice. The encyclopaedia's entry on fruit gives the harvest of the Indian jujube as February and March.

Several varieties are grown. Banglapedia lists BAU Kul 1 and 2, BARI Kul 1 and 2, Narkeli, Sabzi and Apple kul among the popular ones, and describes these:

• BAU Kul 1: developed by the Germplasm Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural University; fruit of 90-250 grams with a sweetness of 18-21 (total soluble solids); the plants are spineless, grow quickly and bear fruit within 4-5 months of planting. It is grown across the country, including saline areas such as Bagerhat and Satkhira, sandy areas such as Saint Martin's Island, Sonadia Island and Cox's Bazar, and the hill districts of Khagrachari and Rangamati.
• BAU Kul 2 (Shah kul): also from the university's Germplasm Centre; fruit of 100-200 grams, sweetness of 19-25, small seeds, crisp and juicy flesh, on a dwarf plant.
• Narkeli kul: elongated, spindle-shaped fruit with a small seed and sweet flesh; Satkhira, Rajshahi and the surrounding areas are its main growing areas.
• Comilla kul: grown around Kachua, Barura and Chandina in Comilla, where it is called dab kul because it looks like a green coconut.
• Apple kul: an attractive, apple-like fruit, crisp, sweet and coloured, from a quick-growing plant that drops few fruits.

The jujube is a hardy plant, according to Banglapedia. It tolerates drought, grows up to 1,000 metres above sea level and prefers dry, hot weather, although heavy and slightly alkaline soils suit it best. It can be raised from seed, but budding and grafting are now widely used, and cleft grafting is the most popular method. March to May is the best time to plant. Because the fruit is borne on new branches, the trees are pruned hard after the harvest, which generally ends in late March, and wild jujube plants are kept away from orchards to reduce powdery mildew and fruit fly. Fruit fly and fruit borer are the main pests; growers who need a control measure for them should ask their upazila agriculture officer.

Official figures for the crop are old in the encyclopaedia. A table in Banglapedia's entry on fruit, drawn from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics for 2007, put the Indian jujube at about 4,000 hectares and about 15,000 tonnes a year at that time. Later reporting described much wider commercial planting: in July 2024 a project director of the Department of Agricultural Extension told the daily Prothom Alo that local fruits such as guava and jujube had become available year-round, which had reduced demand for imported fruit.

The other local fruits in the report are among what Banglapedia calls the country's minor fruits. According to the encyclopaedia, Bangladesh produces 9 major and 48 minor fruits on about 139,535 hectares; mango, banana, jackfruit, pineapple, papaya, litchi and jujube occupy 79 per cent of that area. About 54 per cent of all fruit is harvested in the four months from Baishakh to Srabon (mid-April to mid-August), and the remaining 46 per cent in the other eight months, which bring jujube, hog plum, gooseberry, bel, sapodilla, pomegranate and carambola. That is why winter stalls rely on a short list of local fruit.

• Chalta, the elephant apple (Dillenia indica), is listed by Banglapedia among the common minor fruits.
• Kodbel or kathbel, the wood apple (Feronia limonia), comes from a medium-sized spiny tree with small leaves. Banglapedia describes the fruit as about the size of a tennis ball, greenish when young and whitish when ripe, with an aromatic, slightly sour pulp that is widely eaten as chutney; the tree grows scattered throughout Bangladesh.
• Guava was introduced from tropical America in the middle of the 18th century and is now grown in almost every village grove, according to Banglapedia. About 50 varieties are found, most of them in the Chattogram, Comilla, Sylhet and Barishal regions, with fruit of 20-700 grams.
• Amra, the hog plum (Spondias dulcis in Banglapedia's table), is one of the fruits harvested outside the summer months.
• Sapodilla (sofeda), a medium-sized evergreen tree introduced from tropical America, is extensively cultivated in the Faridpur and Dhaka regions; Banglapedia lists it with papaya, coconut and banana as fruits available throughout the year.
• Jalpai, the Indian olive, is another of the common minor fruits in the encyclopaedia's list.

The sellers' explanation, that duties had made foreign fruit dearer, had been in the news for most of 2025. The daily Ajker Patrika reported in January 2025 that the National Board of Revenue (NBR) had placed imported fruit on its list of luxury goods in 2012, and that until May 2022 all imported fruit carried a 25 per cent customs duty, 15 per cent VAT, 5 per cent advance income tax and 4 per cent advance trade VAT. In May 2022, during a shortage of dollars, the NBR added a 20 per cent regulatory duty, which took the total of duties and taxes on fruit imports to 113.80 per cent, according to the same report.

On 9 January 2025 the NBR raised the supplementary duty on some fresh fruits, such as apples, grapes and watermelon, and on juices from 20 to 30 per cent, Ajker Patrika and the Bengali edition of The Daily Star reported. Ajker Patrika found that a kilogram of Fuji apples at Rampura market had gone from Tk 280 to Tk 300 within four or five days, and traders said sales had fallen by about half.

In February 2025 the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission sent a report to the NBR saying that importing Tk 100 worth of fruit attracted Tk 136 in duties and taxes, Prothom Alo reported on 23 February 2025. The commission recommended cutting the supplementary duty from 30 to 20 per cent and the advance tax from 10 to 2 per cent and removing the regulatory duty; its chairman said apples, pears, grapes, malta and oranges were no longer luxuries, that demand for them rose in Ramadan and that doctors recommended them for patients. On 13 March 2025, bdnews24.com reported, the NBR cut the tax deducted at source on imports of grapes, pears, oranges, malta and some other fresh and dried fruits from 10 to 5 per cent.

In October 2025 the daily Desh Rupantor found good-quality apples at Tk 450 a kg at least and red grapes at Tk 460-480 in Dhaka markets. The general secretary of the Bangladesh Fresh Fruits Importers Association told the paper that high duties were the main cause of rising prices and the requirement to open letters of credit with a 100 per cent margin the second, and that fruit was being treated as a luxury although it was a regular food. Retailers and importers estimated that sales of imported fruit had fallen by 30-40 per cent.

On 14 December 2025, twelve days before the market report, Ajker Patrika reported a new letter from the Tariff Commission to the NBR. It put the total duty on imports of apples, oranges, mandarins, grapes and pears at 121.78 per cent and on pomegranates at 126.78 per cent, and said a 30 per cent supplementary duty was being charged on fresh fruit as a luxury good although, under the Essential Commodities Act of 1956, fresh fruit counted as an essential food. Because apples, malta and pomegranates were not produced in the country, the letter argued, there was little need for such high rates, which could push imports into illegal channels and in time reduce revenue as well. The commission proposed withdrawing or rationalising the extra supplementary duty. Different reports gave different totals because they were calculated at different times and on different bases.

The government did act on one fruit before Ramadan. On 24 December 2025 the state news agency BSS reported that the NBR, by an order of 23 December, had cut the customs duty on imported dates from 25 to 15 per cent until 31 March 2026, to keep dates, a staple of the iftar meal, within reach. The release also said that the advance income tax on imports of all fruits, including dates, had been cut from 10 to 5 per cent under the rules of the latest budget, and that the existing 50 per cent rebate on advance income tax for dates and other fruits remained in force.

According to National Board of Revenue figures reported by Prothom Alo in July 2024, Bangladesh imported 38 kinds of fruit, and about 95 per cent of the volume was apples, malta, oranges, grapes and pomegranates; the rest included pears, kinnow, wood apple, avocado, rambutan and kiwi. Imports had fallen from 822,000 tonnes in the 2021-22 financial year to 599,000 tonnes in 2022-23 and 589,000 tonnes in 2023-24. China supplied about 200,000 tonnes, or 34 per cent of the total, and India 192,000 tonnes, or about 33 per cent, with Africa third; fruit now came from 22 countries, against 35 four or five years before. The import bill for 2023-24 was put at 300 million US dollars, and the government collected Tk 5,139 crore in revenue from fruit imports.

The Bengali edition of The Daily Star reported in February 2025 that fresh fruit imports in July-December 2024 came to 128.51 million dollars, the lowest in three years. A year later the trend for the two largest imports was also downward: Prothom Alo reported in July 2025 that Bangladesh imported 16.14 crore kg of apples and 16.86 crore kg of malta and oranges in the 2024-25 financial year, with imports about 4 per cent lower than in 2023-24, and that the two fruits brought in about Tk 3,220 crore in duties and taxes. On each kilogram of apples, the paper calculated from NBR data, the import cost was about Tk 76.35 and the duties and taxes paid before release from the port about Tk 103.

In the same July 2024 report, the same project director of the Department of Agricultural Extension's nutrition improvement project said domestic fruit production had risen from about one crore (10 million) tonnes a year a decade earlier to about 1.5 crore tonnes, with yields and planted areas both up. Banglapedia notes, however, that temperate fruits have not succeeded in Bangladesh apart from grapes in a few places, and that oranges are grown only in limited areas of Sylhet and in remote parts of Rangamati (Sajek) and Bandarban (Ruma). Apples, pears and pomegranates on Dhaka stalls are therefore almost all imported.

The wholesale prices the Pallabi and Rupnagar sellers spoke of are set largely at Badamtali, on the bank of the Buriganga in Old Dhaka. Banglapedia describes it as a wholesale fruit market stretching from Badamtali to Wiseghat, started in 1935 by Hasan Ali Dali and four or five other traders; until 1971 it sold local seasonal fruit and some fruit from West Pakistan, and it grew after independence as new traders joined.

Prothom Alo described the market on 30 October 2025 as the country's largest wholesale fruit market, near Sadarghat launch terminal and Ahsan Manzil. Its trade is run by importers, farias (intermediaries) and wholesalers; the fresh fruit importers' association had more than 500 members, about 100 of them large importers, and there were more than 500 faria and wholesale shops and 8-10 large cold stores. Fruit arrives overnight by road and river, an auction is held at dawn and buying goes on until after noon. Wholesale sales are by the carton: a carton of malta holds 15-16 kg, of grapes 6-7 kg and of oranges 12-13 kg. A large share of imported fruit, the association's general secretary said, was now sold in advance online and moved straight from Chattogram port.

The same report traced where the fruit comes from by season. Malta came mainly from Egypt from January to June, from South Africa from June to October and from India from August to October. Apples and oranges came mainly from China, South Africa and India, grapes from China and India, pomegranates from India and Egypt, pears from China and dates from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

At the end of October 2025, Prothom Alo found these wholesale prices a kilogram at Badamtali: malta Tk 220-240, green apples Tk 240-360, red apples Tk 200-250, grapes Tk 350-400, oranges Tk 220-250, pomegranates Tk 350-400, pears Tk 200-220 and dragon fruit Tk 120-170. A wholesale trader told the paper that because fruit is perishable, its price changes every day.

Ramadan is the reason both sellers and buyers in the report looked ahead. Importers told Ajker Patrika in January 2025 that there is no local fruit season during the fasting month, so imported fruit has to meet the demand for the iftar table; the Tariff Commission's chairman made the same point about demand in his February 2025 remarks. The December 2025 cut in duty on dates was explained by the NBR in those terms.

The buyers' complaint about monitoring concerns the work of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, set up under the Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 (Act No. 26 of 2009). Under section 38 of the Act, as given in the official text, a trader who, in breach of an obligation imposed by a law or rule, does not hang a list of prices in an easily visible place in a shop is liable to imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to Tk 50,000, or both.

Shamsuddoha's remark that mainly people who were ill were buying fruit reflects how fruit had come to be seen. The World Health Organization suggests eating more than 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day as part of a healthy diet low in fat, sugars and sodium, and says daily fruit and vegetables may reduce the risk of some noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Banglapedia notes that each person should eat at least 85 grams of fruit a day for good health, while people in Bangladesh eat only about 35 grams, and that consumption is unequal, with many poor people getting little or none. Anyone changing their diet, especially with an illness, should ask a doctor first.

Photo: Yahya / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Banglapedia, Prothom Alo, Ajker Patrika, The Daily Star (Bengali edition), bdnews24.com, Desh Rupantor, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 (bdlaws, Ministry of Law), World Health Organization